ENGLISH PROBLEMS 

A SERIES OF PAPERS FOB TEACHERS OF ENGLISH 
IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN 
COMMERCIAL COURSES 

BY 

OSCAR C. GALLAGHER 

HEAD OP THE DEPARTMENT OP ENGLISH, 
BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE 




HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



ENGLISH PROBLEMS 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

Number6 February, 1914. 

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN 
COMMERCIAL COURSES 

BY \ 

OSCAR C. GALLAGHER 

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OP ENGLISH, 
BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE 

The suggestions contained in the following pages are 
intended primarily for teachers of English in commercial 
courses in high schools. In the treatment of composition, 
however, the needs of pupils in business colleges and in 
short, intensive courses, such as are offered in evening 
schools, continuation schools, and some high schools, 
have been carefully considered. 

The teacher of English in a commercial course has a 
rare opportunity. He is free from the dread of ccHege 
examinations. Neither in the choice of his texts of 
literature and his treatment of them, nor in the insist- 
ence that he wishes to lay upon special points in compo- 
sition does he have to consider a set of questions which 
are to determine, at least in the minds of many, whether 
or not his work has been successful. Incidentally, a 
pupil who has done satisfactory work in a standard 
commercial course should find little difficulty in the 
composition examination of any college, — though that 
is not a matter for discussion here. 

Coupled with the opportunity that lies before the 
teacher in a commercial course, however, stands a strict 
responsibility. Freedom from the standard imposed by 

Copyright, 1914, by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 



MAR 30 1914 

©CI,A371102 




TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN COMMERCIAL COURSES 



the prospect of college examinations must not breed 
license to indulge in spasmodic attacks upon imrelated 
points or in slovenly treatment of trivial books. Recog- 
nition of the fact that the supervised study of the pupil 
is to end with the commercial course should emphasize 
the need of the command of accurate and direct English, 
both in speaking and writing, and of breadth and sym- 
pathy to be gained from a wide range of literature. 

Whatever may be the relative value of composition 
and literature in the final analysis, there is no doubt that 
the immediate needs of the commercial pupil demand 
the most thorough attention to composition. At the 
outset the teacher should keep in mind that English is 
English. Business English is nothing but talking and 
writing in good English about business problems. What 
is ungrammatical or incorrect for other purposes is like- 
wise ungrammatical or incorrect for business. The great 
difference between the EngHsh of a college preparatory 
or general course and that of a commercial course lies in 
the content, which in the latter is drawn almost entirely 
from the enterprises and operations which are associated 
with business. Furthermore, emphasis should be laid 
upon English as a means rather than as an end in itself. 
The practical, rather than the artistic, is the goal. 

At the very beginning the class may be shown the 
value of a secretary's report. As essentials of a good 
report the class will readily suggest correct expression, 
complete treatment, proper order, and reasonable pro- 
portion. The reading of poor and good reports by the 
teacher will bring out these qualities if the class does not 
suggest them. The position of English secretary may 
then be created, to be filled for a week by each member 
of the class in turn. At the bell for the beginning of the 
recitation the secretary should rise and begin his report 



ENGLISH PROBLEMS 



of the preceding recitation in English. The attention 
that the class gives to this detail of business soon be- 
comes a habit, especially as all pupils are responsible for 
criticisms of the report at its close. 

These criticisms, at first brief and confined to gram- 
mar and pronunciation and to the adequacy of the 
report, form a good starting-point for more effective 
work in speaking. Most reports and criticisms abound 
in ungrammatical and cheaply colloquial expressions. 
A minute at the close of the report may well be spent in 
rote drill on correct expression. Five or six conspicuous 
mistakes may be daily considered, a word or two of 
comment made on each, and the class drilled in pro- 
nouncing the correct form. Thus "he don't," "we wuz," 
"they done,'* "the guy what come," and others die an 
ultimate, though perhaps a lingering death. 

To be profitable, oral composition must be attacked 
with enthusiasm both by teacher and pupil. If no guid- 
ance is given in the choice of a subject or a distasteful 
subject is set, the talks that pupils give will be ill pre- 
pared and weakly delivered. The recent realization that 
for most pupils business means competition and dis- 
tribution instead of clerical and accounting work has 
brought into the schools many sources formerly little 
used for subjects of discussion. The daily paper pre- 
sents town or municipal affairs, state problems, national 
issues, political complications, foreign conditions, local 
and national market reports, sporting events, book 
reviews, and dramatic notes. Informal discussion 
guided by the teacher may prompt different pupils to 
assume the role of information bureau on different 
topics. Without studying the forms of discourse as such, 
pupils early in the first year gain surprising facility in 
the use of oral exposition and argument. 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN COMMERCIAL COURSES 

The manifold home interests offer subjects about 
which pupils possess or can readily gain information. 
The family budget, the cost of keeping a child in school, 
the management of the corner grocery, money-making 
schemes in club and church, — such subjects will 
always find some pupils ready to rouse others by the 
knowledge they show. 

To set the class talking upon subjects of interest is, 
in fact, so easy that the task of making the talking pro- 
gressively effective is a difficult one. As long as pupils 
suft'er from self-consciousness it is well to praise the 
excellent points in their talks and overlook most errors 
other than indistinct utterance or shocking grammar. 
When they show greater ease, however, they may be 
required to make their work more energetic by the use 
of short crisp sentences. At this time, too, the teacher 
should insist upon an outline carefully arranged in the 
time or space order. The next step is to impose in ad- 
vance a definite time limit, that pupils may learn to 
select the most vital points in their subject and to guage 
the scope of their treatment. Before long the expository 
paragraph should be taken up and numerous topic 
sentences framed and developed by teacher and pupils. 
Following this may come the introductory paragraph 
enumerating different points, each of which will have its 
own paragraph. 

The other studies of first year pupils offer excellent 
opportunities for oral work. The English teacher can 
do much to help the teachers of science and history by 
giving his pupils practice in reciting their lessons in 
these subjects with attention to form of expression as 
well as to truth of statement. The chance to kill two 
birds with one stone will appeal to pupils as a wise 
investment. 



ENGLISH PROBLEMS 



The careers of prominent men and women of the pres- 
ent are followed by young people more closely than 
many imagine. The opinions they exchange informally 
may well be expanded into classroom talks. Contempo- 
rary biography, prepared with the help of Who *s Who, 
the newspapers, and periodicals, is often undertaken by 
some of the brighter pupils, and sows the seeds of char- 
acter analysis which will yield their fruit in the work in 
literature and history in school, and in business in active 
life. 

In all this work in oral composition — which should 
form a large part of the first year work in composition — 
steady progress should be made in attention to details 
as well as to wholes. At no other time can a teacher so 
effectively check bad grammar, slang, looseness of sen- 
tence structure, and false transition from point to point. 
The class, too, is eager to detect mistakes, and its alert- 
ness makes ^the speakers take more pains in their prepa- 
ration. 

It is in leading a pupil to take pains that the real power 
of a teacher is invoked if the oral work is to be success- 
ful. No pupil will give much more effort to a task than 
he has to. If, however, two or three rehearsals with a 
carefully arranged outline at hand precede each formal 
oral composition, both teachers and pupils will be sur- 
prised at the results. As a reward for excellent work a 
pupil should be invited to give his oral composition 
before other divisions of his class or before members of 
upper classes. 

After the first year, although oral composition should 
receive less time, it should by no means be neglected. 
The secretary's report and two talks each day will 
increase the pupils' ease in speaking and widen the 
scope of their interests in the outside world. 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN COMMERCIAL COURSES 

It is not to be expected even at the outset that the 
secretary's report will be the only written composition 
undertaken. From the very beginning a brief daily 
exercise in dictation is invaluable, for it shows the 
teacher the particular weaknesses in spelling, punctua- 
tion, and sentence sense which he will have to combat. 
The simplest method of conducting the exercise in dic- 
tation is to have one pupil take the work down on an 
inconspicuous part of the blackboard while the others 
are working at their seats. At the conclusion of the 
reading, the teacher corrects the work on the board, and 
the pupils, having exchanged papers, underline points 
that are at variance with the corrected copy. Upon the 
return of papers, the pupils quickly correct their errors 
and pass the papers to the teacher, who at his leisure 
skims them hastily to see the prevailing weakness of the 
class and the individual shortcomings of particular 
pupils. As almost every commercial course includes 
dictation in typewriting and phonography, this sort of 
drill is a most helpful piece of cooperation on the part of 
the English teacher. 

In the regular work in written composition sentence 
sense and paragraph unity should be early insisted upon. 
If a half year of oral composition has been carried on, 
these two elements should occasion little trouble. 
Otherwise the tendency to write as sentences subordi- 
nate clauses or phrases, to use four or five- word sentences 
complete in themselves, but part of a single thought- 
unit, and to huddle into a rambling sentence of several 
lines statements with no unity in thought beyond 
sequence in time, demands long and unremitting attack 
from the teacher. The exercise in dictation will do much 
to overcome this weakness, so too will oral reading; but 
oral correction by the teacher and rewriting by the 



ENGLISH PROBLEMS 



pupil in the case of all errors of this kind are the most 
effective remedy. Furthermore, all credit should be 
withheld until the errors have been corrected in writing. 

To secure paragraph unity, the practice suggested for 
oral composition should be followed. A brief topic sen- 
tence should be required, and every succeeding sentence 
should be tested by the pupil as to whether at the right 
time and in the right way it explains the topic sentence. 
To develop logical unity and order, exposition is far 
preferable to description and narration, and has the 
additional advantage of helping the pupil in his recita- 
tions in subjects other than English. 

While keeping in mind these important elements, the 
teacher will, of course, drill thoroughly in the details 
of correct structure. Principles of agreement, the forma- 
tion of possessives and plurals, proper use of relative 
and personal pronouns, correct principal parts of verbs, 
discriminating choice of conjunctions, and the like call 
for constant drill and test. Grammar must be taught 
thoroughly as far as it is taught. It should be taught, 
however, solely as an aid to composition, — for the 
knowledge of forms and principles and for the grasp of 
such nomenclature as is needed in explaining or correct- 
ing the work of pupils. 

With the foundations thus laid, with the rote drill, 
dictation, oral composition, and oral reading aiding the 
written work, the teacher may proceed to follow the 
plan that his own experience has shown him to be most 
effective in dealing specifically with unity, coherence, 
and mass; with clearness, force, and ease; with intro- 
duction, body, and conclusion; and with the four types 
of discourse. In all his work of teaching and correcting, 
he must find time to extend his own knowledge of the 
men and affairs of the business world of to-day. With- 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN COMMERCIAL COURSES 

out his enthusiastic interest, the composition work will 
be a flabby dawdHng with words. 

Business-letter-writing is often regarded as the only 
part of English that is strictly business. Yet outside of 
certain mechanical details, commercial correspondence 
is nothing but English composition, demanding, how- 
ever, greater exactness and directness than are required 
in many types of ordinary composition. 

To treat commercial correspondence too seriously at 
the outset is a great mistake. The mechanical details, 
of course, can be easily taught; but the real business of 
a letter cannot be transacted unless the pupil actually 
understands the transaction involved. This knowledge 
pupils often lack at the time of their entrance into high 
school. The various types of note connected with their 
school affairs may, however, be well taken up early in 
the course. Excuses for tardiness and absence, requests 
for permission to consult other teachers or visit the 
library, etc., should be first taken up. A standard form 
should be decided upon by the teachers of English and 
business technique and the principal, and this form 
should be insisted upon in all rooms and departments. 
The habit of proper arrangement and correct expression 
can be speedily implanted if requests are uniformly 
refused when couched with the slightest inaccuracy. 

After these simple notes the teacher should take up 
the short business letters that young people find occa- 
sion to write. Requests for catalogues and samples, 
subscriptions to periodicals, inquiries about stamp, coin, 
and other agencies, orders for books and athletic goods, 
arrangements for games, specifications for decorating 
the school hall for a dance, and the like, are forms such 
as almost every pupil has to use. Following these may 
come the formal application for a position, the request 



ENGLISH PROBLEMS 



for interviews, or for a letter of recommendation, the 
making of appointments, the specification of means and 
time of transportation for expected visitors, the engag- 
ing of rooms at hotels, and the reserving of parlor car 
seats. 

To give the letter-writing the spirit of real business, 
alternate rows in a class may be designated different 
well-known business houses, the intervening rows repre- 
senting the purchasing public. In each row a manager 
can assign to different pupils the tasks of writing circular 
letters, receiving and answering orders, handling com- 
plaints, adjusting claims, and requesting attention to 
accounts overdue. An extensive mail order business can 
be built up thus in the classroom, and the variety and 
earnestness of the letters will be surprising. 

As early as the beginning of the third year, the seri- 
ous study of a first-rate textbook in commercial corre- 
spondence should begin. In addition to the performance 
of tasks assigned in the book there should be brief criti- 
cisms almost daily of bona fide business letters that 
members of the class bring in. Almost every large busi- 
ness house has many letters of no permanent value or 
private nature that the manager is perfectly willing to 
turn over to the school. The reading of some of these 
letters helps to fix in the minds of the pupils expressions 
peculiar to special lines of business. The special vocabu- 
laries that are thus formed should be steadily developed 
by the use of a business speller, in which, in addition to 
principles and rules, the vocabularies peculiar to every 
common business are presented for spelling and the 
terms explained. 

With the knowledge of commerce secured from his 
other studies and his own experience in business, and 
with the insight that wide examination of business let- 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN COMMERCIAL COURSES 

ters gives him, a pupil should be able to think clearly 
upon business problems. With the practice gained in 
four years of composition he should be able to speak and 
write of these problems effectively. 

In the field of literature the teacher in the commercial 
course finds his chance to reach the hearts of his pupils. 
Though the practical must be always considered in com- 
position, in literature the moral and the aesthetic have 
the predominant claim. Many have written upon the 
various methods of teaching literature. In one of the 
recent English Problems Miss Ashmun has given 
valuable suggestions in The Essentials in Teaching 
Literature. The moral value of literature rightly taught 
is treated in the January Leaflet of the New England 
Association of Teachers of English. In fact, literature 
has been so well presented by teachers as a whole that 
little need be said about the teaching of it in the com- 
mercial course. 

The appeal of literature, however, is likely to be 
especially keen to yoimg people who are looking forward 
to business. The standards of society, the social and 
economic conditions of different periods, the customs of 
different lands, the essential elements in character- 
building make such an appeal because of their connec- 
tion with the studies of the commercial course that the 
pupils will readily respond to subsequent appeals to 
their appreciation of the beautiful and to the ideals of 
right living. 

Among books of real literary merit that appeal 
strongly to young people with business aims are 
Parton's Captains of Industry y Franklin's Autobiography, 
Owen Wister's Ulysses S. Grant, Pearson's An American 
Railroad Builder, Ruskin's Unto This Last and Fors 
Clavigera, Macaulay's Lord Clive and Warren Hastings, 



ENGLISH PROBLEMS 



Parkman's Oregon Trails Schurz's Abraham Lincoln^ 
and Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey. Novels and 
dramas should also be interspersed among these essays 
and biographies. In treating all such works the empha- 
sis should be laid upon the enjoyment of reading. By 
oral reading in class, by group assignments for special 
careers, by judicious assignment of topics for occasional 
written compositions, by informal debates upon issues 
faced by the characters, the pupils soon come to look 
forward to the literature periods with keen anticipation. 

The supplementary reading of a class should be 
guided by the English teacher. Many of the magazines 
contain thrilling stories, true to life, of business success 
in the face of stern obstacles. The articles of Carleton, 
Woolley, Connolley, Merwin, Webster, and Glass offer 
short tales rich in humor, pathos, grit, and gumption. 
From such entertainment some pupils may be led to the 
problem novels of Kingsley, Reade, and others. The 
novels of American authors of the present are particu- 
larly full of the problems that the business men and 
women of to-day have to face. 

In literature, far more than in composition, the teacher 
must gain and hold the confidence of the pupil. Pupils 
are willing to have their judgments criticized, but they 
shrink from having their emotions and ideals too rudely 
and publicly analyzed. The fair spirit of the game in all 
the English work for the years of the high school course 
will develop in the pupil both the spirit and habit of 
service. 



MODERN PROSE AND POETRY 
FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

EDITED BY 

MARGARET ASHMUN 

Instructor in English in the University of 
Wisconsin 

{Ready in May, 1914) 

This book contains reading material chosen from the works of 
recent writers for students of the second high school year. The se- 
lections in almost every case are complete units. They possess the 
distinct quality of freshness, since they are taken from volumes most 
of which have not hitherto been accessible to high school classes. 
The modern content and treatment of these pieces of literature give 
them the contemporary tone that appeals to boys and girls in the first 
two high school years. The book is constructed somewhat upon the 
plan of the author's " Prose Literature for Secondary Schools." Each 
selection is equipped with notes, suggestions for study, theme sub- 
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references for biographical study. 



PROSE LITERATURE 
FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

EDITED BY 

MARGARET ASHMUN 

80 cents, net. Postpaid. 

The selections in this book cover a wide field, are well chosen from 
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The book is extensively used in public and private high schools. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



LITERATURE FOR COMMERCIAL 


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ASHMUN: 


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An American Citizen : The 
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win, Jr. 




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Promoting Good Citizen- 


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Afoot and Afloat, R.L.S. 








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A Bunch of Herbs, and 








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Sharp Eyes, and Other 








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Two Years Before the 








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LITERATURE FOR COMMERCIAL 
COURSES IN HIGH SCHOOLS 



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Essay on Lord Clive, 
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Essay on Warren Hast- 
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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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THE BUSINESS I ^ ^^^ ^^^ ,,, , 

By ION E. DWYER 

Principal Commercial Department, Hope Street High School^ 
Providence, B.I. 

{To be published in May) 

The development of the new business letter is making an 
enormous contribution to the business growth of our coun- 
try. It offers the greatest opportunity we have for business 
building and extension. 

This book covers enough of the field of business correspond- 
ence to give the student an excellent working knowledge of 
the subject. Each difficult point is first explained, then il- 
lustrated so clearly that there can be no missing the point. 
Many of the illustrations are from the files of progressive 
business houses, and all of them are so full of life that a new 
interest is added to the study of letter- writing. Sufficient 
information about business usages is included to give the 
student a good background. The book is logical in presen- 
tation, attractive in style, and up-to-date in material. 



ENGLISH FOR SECONDARY 
SCHOOLS 

By W. F. WEBSTER 

Principal of the East High School, Minneapolis, Minn. 

90 cents, net. Postpaid. 

A textbook that is especially well adapted to students in 
commercial courses in secondary schools. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



iHiiK'l'i!^ °^ CONGRESS 

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